The Tigress (Marvel FF)

22: Stars.

"I don't know if we should be up here...."

"Relax, Steve... Come on." Kathleen coaxed him, as she jumped up another ledge; slowly scaling the wall up to the roof of the apartment building.

Steve followed her reluctantly, not sure how climbing up to the roof had anything to do with anything. Nevertheless, he watched how she moved from ledge to crevice and tried to mimic her agile movements.

"Uh." Kathleen grunted as she finally reached her destination, stepping flat on her feet as she found stable ground on the small flat square surface of the roof.

Steve joined her moments later,
"What are we doing up here?"

"Looking at the view."

His brows furrowed as he surveyed the hectic skyline around them, numerous buildings obstructing any kind of scenery that might be hiding behind them.
"What view?"

April chuckled and knelt down on gravel. "Not that view." She laid flat on her back and gazed up into the night "This one."

Steve smirked, one corner of his mouth turning upwards as he joined her on the hard floor.

"This I what I wanted to show you." Kathleen explained.

"Stars?"

"Yup. Stars." She concluded "But it's the thing I love most about the stars that I wanted to share..."

Steve's head turned to the right, gazing at the moonlit side of Kathleen's face.
"And what's that?"

"It's that-" Her expression hardened and became more sincere "No matter what goes on in the world. No matter what things begin or end. No matter what things change, and keep changing - the stars always stay the same."
There was a moment of quiet before Kathleen spoke again, adding "Of Course not literally; stars do change. But when I look up at the night sky and I see the same little balls of light against the deep black, I just feel like everything is the same, everything's normal, and everything makes sense."

Steve smiled warmly,
"You like the stars, huh?"

"Yeah." she answered in a dazed tone "I've always been drawn to them... Don't know why."

Steve stared, awed, and in silent appreciation.
But he wasn't gazing at the stars.

Kathleen was fully aware he hadn't taken his eyes off her since they'd isolated themselves up here, she could feel his doting eyes trailing over her as they lay bathed in the light of the night sky.
She zoned out of Steve's affectionate glare for a moment to take in the sight above her. Sometimes she spent so long looking up into the deep purple that she felt she could almost touch the stars interlaced in its web; and in that moment all she felt was serenity. She couldn't see the focus of Steve's eyes on her, she couldn't feel the weight of her body pressed against the gravel beneath her, and she couldn't hear anything but the calm winds of the evening whispering past her ears.

She especially couldn't hear her boyfriend knocking boisterously on her apartment door downstairs...